Descend Into Sorrow

Story

After a ho-hum holiday, I began to wonder if maybe for Christmas to be valuable, you need to be broke. Maybe only people in darkness can see the great light.

I posted a rough draft a couple of years ago, but now I've re-recorded it with proper love and attention.

Lyrics

Descend Into Sorrow(Dave Nealon, December, 2011)

Lest the holly and ivy in an ancient appealShould convict their caretakers of willful neglectYou have gathered the families for a holiday mealTraded stories and presents and paid your respects

It’s another safe Christmas that works out alrightIn ambiguous balance of value and costSo you tend to the children to see through their eyesBut even they’ve gone nostalgic in a vague air of loss

Descend into sorrow on the year’s longest nightFor the people in darkness have seen a great light

When the glow of the street lamp erases the starsLike the rush of the wind all but muted by carsOr the crash of the ocean when it’s hushed by the dinOf the clash and confusion of the discord you’re in

If your eyes were just blind there would be no disgraceBut you insist that you see so your darkness remainsThrough the vast, empty vacuum of parsecs of spaceFlies the bright solar wind to illumine your face

It’s a pale imitation—the lights on the treeRaging stars power planets distant light-years awayBut at Mercury sunset into nocturnityAn entire year passes before the new day

You’ve got power and plumbing, an electronic gridWhy should you feel ashamed of aught that you did?Too involved to be lonely, too well-loved to be sadYou’re too full to be hungry, too polite to be bad

There’s nurse for the dying; there’s a purse for the poorThere’s a dance for the aged and aching and soreThe traditional revels of music and loreIn the home of the drifter there’s a truce for the conscripts of war

Descend into sorrow on the year’s longest nightFor the people in darkness have seen a great light